The 33-year-old nuclear attack submarine USS Houston left Pearl Harbor this week for the state of Washington, where it will be decommissioned in August.
The 362-foot, Los Angeles-class Houston, the fourth Navy vessel named in honor of the city of Houston, was home-ported at Pearl Harbor in January 2012.
The sub will be decommissioned Aug. 26 and will spend the following year going through deactivation and disassembling of components for historical archiving, the Navy said in a news release.
At an aloha ceremony Monday at Pearl Harbor, Cmdr. Scott McGinnis, Houston’s commanding officer, from Richmond, Va., said: “It is a celebration of our time in Pearl Harbor.
“You can see the energy and amount of people here who are just happy to be a part of the Houston family and celebrate the success.”
“The Houston is going to be sending off some outstanding sailors,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Paul McCrory, a sonar technician from Pittsburgh and chief of the boat. “Everybody has put their best foot forward. We’ve come through so much with the age of this ship, it’s really hard to maintain after 33 years of active service. It’s been special to watch the guys take advantage of being a part of what’s going to be history.”
The Houston was constructed at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. in Newport News, Va., and was commissioned Sept. 25, 1982.
The fast-attack submarine, displacing 6,900 tons, is armed with MK-48 torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles.
On Memorial Day the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force said farewell to another Los Angeles-class nuclear attack sub, the 33-year-old USS City of Corpus Christi, in a decommissioning ceremony at Pearl Harbor.
The City of Corpus Christi was assigned to Apra Harbor, Guam, in October 2002. In May 2011 it came to Pearl Harbor for a final overhaul and to serve out its final years.
The sub is the 18th ship of the Los Angeles class and the second ship to bear the name of Corpus Christi, Texas.
